Botanical Gardens turns 15

The Gardens were established 15 years ago to promote the conservation and biodiversity of the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest – the traditional vegetation of the area. Paul Blanchflower, the Gardens’ co-founder, was inspired to open the Gardens after collecting seeds in the area with Walter Gastmans and others for many years. He also saw the Gardens as a way to welcome people into Auroville’s greenbelt (much of it inaccessible to the general public), so they could see the conservation efforts Auroville was making. Paul, Walter and Auronevi proposed the idea to the community after Auroville purchased a large plot of land outside Edayanachavady village, and the project began.

Paul describes the evolution of the Gardens as a “synthesis of different people’s ideas”, where the “plants and the community are a living being” and the people are the Gardens’ biggest success. “It’s important to realise the Botanical Gardens are very much a collection of people and their own different aspirations, and everyone brings something to the Gardens,” he says. “For example, Adhi has been here since the beginning. It’s very much his energy and my energy that’s carried the material development of the garden. Many others have come. There are a lot of people who put a lot of energy into creating that sense of community and the space. You always have memories of ‘Oh, that guy planted that tree.’ So when you talk about vision, it’s always been to celebrate biodiversity, and the more people we have, the more diverse the biodiversity.”

Over 60 people now work at the Gardens, including about 20 Aurovilians (a mix of full-time, part-time and volunteers), 20 local employees and about 20-30 long-stay volunteers each year.

Some of these people come with a particular vision to develop a specific garden within the space. Volker created the impressive cactus garden, and the orchid garden was started by Auronevi and developed further by Nathalie and Francois. The Botanical Garden team also plans to further develop the butterfly garden.

The requirements of the specialised gardens need to be balanced with the Gardens’ rather intensive overall maintenance. Over the past 15 years, the team has established a water infrastructure and acquired necessary tools, such as two tractors and grass-cutting machines.

The Gardens achieved its first goal of “having something to show” by the seven-year mark, when it opened its education centre in 2007. Its next goal – to “create an atmosphere” by the 15-year mark – was somewhat marred by the cyclone in 2011. “We lost some of the atmosphere,” says Paul, “but it pushed us in a nice direction. We had let the Work Trees grow as a first canopy and were going to remove them after 20 years. They blew over in the cyclone as they were widely spaced, and that left big gaps in the arboretum. Those gaps are filling nicely. The cyclone was a case of two steps back, one step forward, and you can see how the Gardens will be in the next stage. If you imagine that mature trees are 150 years old, we’re only one-tenth of the way there.”

Auroville’s Botanical Gardens differ from other botanical gardens around the world in one major way: funding. The ongoing maintenance costs are high and new projects can only be implemented when there’s extra funding. Paul says that much of his work these days requires him to be in the office, “keeping the money coming in.”

Such behind-the-scenes practicalities seem worlds away when visitors abandon themselves to laughter as they get lost in the maze and labyrinth. The education centre has no shortage of good educational materials, but visitors primarily respond to fun activities. In the maze, for example, there are 12 hidden paintings of the animals of the forest, so the children are encouraged to run around and find the animals and then connect them to the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. The idea is that by engaging children in this way, the memory carries into adulthood. And later on in life, they may connect the sense of fun or joy to the environment, and this may allow them to make a decision in favour of the environment.

The team at the Gardens also responds to requests from outside organisations to create gardens. It has worked for resorts, hotels, schools, private homes and businesses in other parts of India, always using native species. They take their methods of using native vegetation into the landscaping, creating spaces of biodiversity. They have extended their expertise from the coast to the hills, learning more about the latter’s different ecosystem in the process. They advise rural factory owners to create a shelter belt of tropical dry evergreen forest around their factories, which provides a safe haven for pollinators, which can then fly five kilometres and pollinate the fruit trees and the crops of local farmers. In this way, factory owners can support the local agriculture system.

“And they’re happy to do it,” says Paul. “India has extraordinary people running these businesses, they’re very connected to nature.”

Given that many of the mature Botanical Gardens around the world were started 150 years ago, what is the future of Auroville’s Botanical Gardens? The team would like to offer more activities at the Gardens, although funds are lacking to do this at present. They would like to double the number of school programmes, to work with colleges on more tertiary programmes, and offer three-month courses. To achieve these goals, more people are needed. But the Botanical Gardens door is always open to new energy, new ideas. As Paul puts it, “This is a venue where people can come and do stuff.”